Samita does city proud, wins 3 gold medals in Asia Pacific Masters meet
Anil Datt
Ludhiana, September 17
City veteran athlete, Samita Ahuja gave a stunning performance making a hat-trick of gold medals in her maiden overseas competition.
Samita secured three gold medals in the plus 45 years category in the Asia Pacific Masters Games held at Penang in Malaysia from September 7 to 15. She stamped her superiority by finishing ahead of others to clinch gold medals in the 400-metre, 800-metre and 3,000-metre races to bring glory to her family, coach besides the nation.
A trainee of Sanjeev Sharma, an athletics coach with the Punjab Sports Department, Samita started getting coaching about two years ago here at Guru Nanak Stadium where she followed two hours daily for six days a week training session in the evening.
Samita also attends a gym in the morning where she does fitness exercises under the guidance of experts that helped a lot in maintaining endurance and stamina.
Samita carved a niche for herself last year when she scored a brace in the National Masters Games held in Chandigarh wherein she won two silver medals in the 100-metre sprint and 200-metre race in the plus 40 years section.
Samita owes her success to her husband, Ashish Ahuja who motivated her to take up the sports. She has been preparing hard for the World Masters Games scheduled to be held in Italy in the middle of next year where she will compete in the 200-metre, 400-metre and 800-metre races.
“Samita is regular and a hard working trainee and I am sure that she will make her presence felt in the next World Masters Games,” says her coach, Sanjeev.
Ravinder Singh, District Sports Officer, Ludhiana, congratulated the veteran athlete on her outstanding achievement. He also appreciated Sanjeev who has produced a number of medal-winning athletes who made the department proud.
